Botanical classification/cultivar designation: Impatiens walleriana cultivar Balolepep.
The present Invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Double Impatiens plant, botanically known as Impatiens walleriana, and hereinafter referred to by the name xe2x80x98Balolepepxe2x80x99.
The new Double Impatiens is a naturally-occurring branch sport mutation of the Impatiens walleriana cultivar Sparkler Rose, disclosed in U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,603. The new Impatiens was discovered and selected by the Inventors in October, 1999, within a population of plants of the cultivar Sparkler Rose in a controlled environment in Cartago, Costa Rica.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by terminal cuttings taken at Cartago, Costa Rica since October, 1999, has shown that the unique features of this new Impatiens are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.
The following traits have been repeatedly observed and are determined to be the unique characteristics of xe2x80x98Balolepepxe2x80x99. These characteristics in combination distinguish xe2x80x98Balolepepxe2x80x99 as a new and distinct Double Impatiens cultivar:
1. Compact, upright, outwardly spreading and mounded plant habit.
2. Freely branching growth habit.
3. Green and pale yellow variegated leaves.
4. Red purple and light pink bi-colored flowers that are fully double and positioned above and beyond the foliage.
Plants of the new Impatiens are most similar to plants of the parent, the cultivar Sparkler Rose. In side-by-side comparisons conducted in West Chicago, Ill., plants of the new Impatiens differed from plants of the cultivar Sparkler Rose in the following characteristics:
1. Plants of the new Impatiens were more compact and smaller than plants of the cultivar Sparkler Rose.
2. Plants of the new Impatiens had shorter internodes than plants of the cultivar Sparkler Rose.
3. Plants of the new Impatiens and the cultivar Sparkler Rose differed in flower color.